Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1887-12-29
Grant County 4erala:
About Arkansas.
BENToN. Ark. Dec. p.


EDITOR HERALD. Having received
several letters making inquiries about
this region. l thought short deserip-
ton of 1t might interest many of the
HERALD readers. Many northern peo-
ply get their ideas of Arkansas from
the Arkansas Traveller and consider
the whole state one vast unbroken par.
adise of bull-frogs and snakes, peopled
with few ague .stric.Sen Yahoos.
But the idea is - far as possible from
the truth in regard to the greater part
of The state. There are sx,mps in the
state. and so there are in Wisconsin
they have ague in parts Just As they do
everywhere where there Is standing
water and hot weather enough to grow
the germs of malaria. But a large part
OF the state Gncluding this neighbour
hood) is rolling, and some parts billy,
with gravelly soil. and consequently
well drained and free from standing
water and so far from malaria Much
of the eastern part of the st lie (lifty or
hundred miles back from the Missis
sippD is quite level and consequently
poorly drained, with bad water, and
frequent swamps, aud 50 necessarily
not healthy. although the soil is quite
fertile. There is magnificent timber in
that part. however. and some day il will
be the seat of extensive wood manu-
features
This part OF the stat Is quite rolling
and well drained. with tie best OF water.
Every little valley has its running
stream of pure soft water. With many
springs, most Of them soft and pure,
but some of them mineraliron, sulphur
or alum
This region has tue timber for man
ufactures, both hard wood and pine.
Much of the timber Is large aud lofty
gum trees; which are almost useless at
present, as the wood is very hard to
split, il will neither make rails nor fuel.
But the wood is beautifully white and
tine-grained and when dry yery hard,
and some day will be very valuable for
cabinet wood, aud the quality which
makes it useless now (being so hard 10
spliD is a virtue in cabinet wood The
mineral resources of tie region | shall
leave for another l0tter
In a magazine article. written by a
literary woman, she relates that when
in Arkansas her hus band shot five rattle
snakes before breakfast. standing all
the while on his pnrch. Such yarns
may make interesting reading in the
way of fiction. During the war spent
several summer months in this state,
camping out every night Since then
have crossed the state twice, and last
summer | was every day out in the
fields and woods; aud get | never saw
a rattlesnake in this state and very few
other snakes | believe forty acres in
Rattesnake Bottom, in Waterloo or
Cassyile will produce more rattlesnakes
than this whole county. | have heard
tough stories about "seed ticks" and
''jiggers," (Which is about rs near the
Spanish word ehtgo as the average
American or Englishman can be ex-
pected to geD but | have not seen or
felt any Of these yarininlS herea bouts
True, during the midsummer the wood
ticks numerously cultivate the acquaint-
ance OF the perspiring backwoodsmen.
but they are not very serious pest, in
fact have been considerably amused
in studying them There is wonder
ful difference between wood-lick
hunting soft sit" on the human an
atomy and the same tick the day after
he has found one lathe former ease
he is the thinnest thing alive and has a
a gait like a champion siX-days go-as.
you-please In the latter case be has
acquired an abdomen like the proverb-
Ial alderman and will dio rather than
move a step. suppose the state has
IT'S share of mosquitoes, but this neigh
borhood is almost entirely free from
them. Out in the woods | have seen
occasionally one since the middle
of last February. but there have not
been any in the house at any time.
The soil in this part Of the state varies
from sandy to grave ~, in some
places intermixed pretty thick
iy with fragments of granite and quartz,
so that it looks barren, but it is not
The uplands produce good cotton and
20 or so bushels an acre OF corn. The
river and creek bottoms produce 30 or
60 bushels of corn per acre. but it can
never compete with the northwestern
prairies for grain and hay, aud conse.
quently for hogs and cattle Corn is
80 or so cents bushel, and what hogs
are raised run oat in the extensive
woods and live on "maSLH (acorns,
hickory nuts, walnuts, etc., so that
pork is high, but of better quality
than the corn and swill fed, h ,lera-
tainted hogs Of the north.
The native grasses seem easily killed
out by pasturing, and although it has
been demonstrated that there are sew
eral varities of cultivated grasses which
flourish here, the people have not had
enterprise enough to introduce those
grasses, so the cattle are few and poor.
But the region is not so badly off as
Grant county would now be if its people
had depended on the now extinct prairie
grass and not introduced the blue grass
white and red cloyers. timothy, etc
This region seems excellently adapted
to sheep raising. and sheep would be
great help to farmers in keeping down
the sprouts and briers Oh newly cleared
land; but the mass of the people persist
in keeping numerous worthless, hIngry,
hounds, which would make sheep.
raising precarious
1t Is a great fruit region, both for
wild and cultivated fruit. Blackberries
grow wild so plentiful tia, few people
take the trouble to raise them. had
ny FIRST mos ~ them last summer.